Item identification may be performed, for example, in case of tracking and routing a passenger bag within airport premises, by installing read points through which the conveyor belt transporting that bag run. Conventional read points typically use the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) to determine which bag tag is attached to the bag. However, the latter is a very unreliable type of measurement, which depends on numerous factors such as the propagation environment, the quality of the tag and the antenna, the consistency in the quality of the tag, etc. As a consequence, the probability of misidentification is high. In order to alleviate this problem, shielding panels and RF absorbing panels may be installed by the read point to ensure that readings only from the bag tag on the item moving past the antenna are received. However, this implies a higher infrastructure cost.
Hence, there is a long-felt need in the technical field of item identification of overcoming the abovementioned drawbacks of the state-of-the-art solutions.